Italian Pear, Dark Chocolate and Mascarpone Panettone | Panettone Pere, Cioccolato Fondente e Mascarpone

Sep 29

11 min read

Panettone Pere, Cioccolato Fondente e Mascarpone (Italian Pear, Dark Chocolate and Mascarpone Panettone)

Panettone is the hardest thing in the Italian dessert repertoire, and the reason is not the shaping or the proof. It is heat. This version carries dried pear, candied pear and dark chocolate through a dough enriched with mascarpone, and almost every decision answers one question: how do you keep it cool enough to survive the mixer.

Yield: one 2 lb (900 g) panettone, 12 servings. Active work: 2 hours. Fermentation and proofing: about 20 hours. Bake: 45 minutes. Cooling: 8 hours inverted. Difficulty: advanced. Course: dolce. Region: Lombardy, Milan.

The Story

Panettone belongs to Milan, and the shape the world recognises is younger than the bread. Until the early twentieth century the Milanese Christmas bread was low and broad, baked on a flat tray, closer to a very rich focaccia than to a dome. The tall cylinder arrived in the 1920s with industrial production and the paper mould, which let the dough climb instead of spreading and let a bakery box and ship it. That change was not cosmetic. A dough that rises vertically, held on all sides by paper, develops the long vertical shreds that anyone who has ever pulled a panettone apart by hand recognises immediately, and a flat loaf simply cannot build them.

Pear is the least foreign thing you can add to this dough. Lombardy has a deep pear culture: the small hard pere Martine of the Brianza, almost inedible raw and cooked for centuries in red wine, and the pear mostarda that still goes beside the boiled meats of the Milanese winter table. Putting pear into a Christmas bread is a shorter journey than the candied citron and the sultanas the classic version depends on, both of which reached Milan by boat from very far away. Dark chocolate is the genuinely modern element, and it earns its place because pear needs something bitter beside it or the whole bread reads as flatly sweet.

Mascarpone is the third Lombard voice. It is made in the flat dairy country around Lodi and Abbiategrasso, a short drive from the city, and it has been the enrichment of choice in Lombard pastry for as long as recipes have been written down here. In a panettone dough it does something butter alone cannot, bringing fat, a little milk protein and a faint lactic acidity at once, which softens the crumb and lengthens the life of the bread. None of this makes the recipe traditional, and it does not need to be. The ministerial decree of 2005 that defines panettone in Italy leaves room for named variants precisely because the bakers of Lombardy never once stopped changing it.

Ingredients

For the dried pear

Williams pears, firm, 2 medium
Lemon juice, 1 tbsp (15 ml)

For the candied pear

Williams pears, firm, 2 medium
Granulated sugar, 1 cup (200 g)
Water, 1 cup (240 ml)
Pear brandy, 1 tbsp (15 ml)

For the first dough

Bread flour, 1 1/2 cups (200 g)
Cold water, 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Instant dry yeast, 1/2 tsp (1.5 g)
Granulated sugar, 1 tbsp (12 g)
Egg yolks, cold, 2
Unsalted butter, cold and cubed, 2 tbsp (28 g)

For the second dough

Bread flour, 1 1/4 cups (170 g)
Granulated sugar, 1/3 cup (65 g)
Egg yolks, cold, 3
Honey, 1 tbsp (20 g)
Fine sea salt, 1 tsp (6 g)
Vanilla bean, seeds only, 1
Orange zest, finely grated, from 1 orange
Mascarpone, cold, 3 1/2 oz (100 g)
Unsalted butter, cold and cubed, 5 tbsp (70 g)

For the inclusions

Dried pear slices, chopped, 2 1/2 oz (70 g)
Candied pear cubes, drained, 3 1/2 oz (100 g)
Dark chocolate 70 percent, chopped, 3 1/2 oz (100 g)

For finishing

Paper panettone mould, 6 in (15 cm), 1
Unsalted butter, melted, 1 tsp (5 g)
Pearl sugar, 1 tbsp (15 g)

Preparation

Step 1: Dry the pear slices

Peel and core two pears, slice them a scant 1/8 in (3 mm) thick and toss them in lemon juice. Dry them on a rack at 160°F (70°C) for 4 to 5 hours, until leathery and flexible rather than brittle. Cool completely and chop coarsely. Do this days ahead.

Step 2: Candy the pear cubes

Cut the other two pears into 1/3 in (8 mm) cubes. Bring the sugar and water to a simmer, add the cubes and poach them 12 minutes at the barest simmer. Off the heat, stir in the brandy and cool the cubes in the syrup overnight. Drain and dry them on paper.

Step 3: Chill the equipment

Put the mixer bowl and hook in the freezer for 30 minutes. Weigh the flour and hold it in the refrigerator. Cube the butter and keep it cold. Have the probe thermometer beside the machine before you begin.

Step 4: Mix the first dough

Mix the bread flour, cold water, yeast and sugar in the chilled bowl on low for 4 minutes. Add the cold yolks one at a time, then the butter in three additions, until the dough is smooth and pulls from the sides. The centre should read 72°F (22°C) or lower.

Step 5: Ferment the first dough

Cover and leave it at 64°F (18°C) for 12 to 14 hours, until it has tripled and smells of yeast and cream rather than alcohol. If it smells sharp and has sunk in the centre it has gone too far and will not hold gas.

Step 6: Build the second dough

Return the fermented dough to the chilled bowl and mix in the second flour with the sugar on low until the mass tightens and turns elastic, about 8 minutes. Add the cold yolks in three additions, then the honey, salt, vanilla seeds and zest. Stop the machine if it passes 75°F (24°C).

Step 7: Work in the mascarpone and butter

Add the cold mascarpone in two additions, letting each disappear before the next, then the cubed butter a little at a time on the lowest speed. The dough slackens and comes back together, glossy and extensible enough to stretch into a thin sheet. It must not exceed 79°F (26°C).

Step 8: Fold in the pear and the chocolate

Turn the dough onto a cool bench and fold in the dried pear, candied pear and chopped chocolate by hand, in three or four letter folds. Working off the machine keeps the dough from taking on more friction heat at the one moment it can least afford it.

Step 9: Rest, shape and pan

Cover and rest the dough 45 minutes at room temperature. Shape it by drawing the edges into the centre and rolling it under a cupped palm into a tight ball, sealing the base. Drop it seam down into the paper mould, which it should fill no more than one third of the way up.

Step 10: Proof to the rim

Proof at 78°F (26°C) for 5 to 7 hours, until the crown sits 3/4 in (2 cm) below the rim of the paper. Judge the dough, never the clock. Brush with melted butter, scatter the pearl sugar and cut a shallow cross in the crown with a wet blade.

Step 11: Bake, then invert and cool

Bake at 330°F (165°C) for 45 to 50 minutes, until the core reads 199°F (93°C). Immediately run two long skewers through the base and hang the panettone upside down between two pots for at least 8 hours. Cooling it upright crushes the crumb before the structure sets.

Plating

Serve it at room temperature and never cold. Refrigeration sets the butter in the crumb hard and the bread tastes dry and waxy even when it is perfectly moist. If the panettone has been in a cool pantry, give it two hours on the bench, or ten minutes in an oven at 250°F (120°C) with the door left ajar.

Cut it in wedges from the top down with a long serrated knife, using a sawing stroke rather than pressure, so the vertical shreds stay intact instead of compacting. A warm dry blade goes through the chocolate cleanly. Present the wedges leaning against one another on a wooden board, crown upward, and put a bowl of loosely whipped mascarpone beside it rather than on the plate.

Professional Technique

One number governs this dough, and it is 79°F (26°C). A mixer does mechanical work on a dough and most of that work leaves the machine as heat. Over twenty or thirty minutes of mixing a rich panettone dough, friction alone lifts the mass by fifteen or twenty degrees Fahrenheit. Above 79°F (26°C) two things fail at once. The gluten network, already stretched to its limit by this much sugar and fat, breaks down faster than mixing can build it. At the same time the butter passes out of its plastic range and melts, and once melted it separates from the dough instead of staying dispersed through it. The dough turns slick and shiny, slackens, and no further mixing brings it back.

Every part of the method works backwards from that limit. The bowl and hook go into the freezer, and the flour, eggs, butter and mascarpone all come to the machine cold. The low speed is thermal management, not timidity. When the probe climbs within three degrees of the ceiling, stop the mixer, cover the bowl and refrigerate it fifteen minutes: the dough loses nothing and the gluten relaxes usefully. The thermometer goes into the centre of the mass, not against the bowl, and is read after every addition. It is a control instrument, not a gesture.

This is why Italian bakers mix panettone at night in summer. A workshop at 86°F (30°C) gives the dough a starting temperature you cannot recover from, so the work moves to two in the morning. A domestic mixer makes the problem worse rather than better: the motor sits under the bowl, the bowl is thin, and nothing is jacketed. At home, mix in shorter bursts than a recipe suggests, plan on two refrigerator pauses, and accept a longer total time.

Texture and Moisture Control

The pear is in this bread twice, in two states, and that is a moisture decision rather than a flavour one. Fruit that still holds free water releases it into the crumb during the bake, leaving wet channels around every piece and a bread that goes stale from the inside within two days. Drying binds the water in the pear tissue; candying replaces it with sugar syrup, which holds onto it and refuses to migrate. The dried slices give concentrated pear flavour and a slight chew, the candied cubes give softness and perfume, and neither one waters the crumb.

The crumb itself is built by the vertical proof and preserved by the inverted cooling. A panettone leaves the oven with a structure that is still soft and full of steam, and the dome weighs more than the set gluten underneath it can support. Hanging it upside down for eight hours lets it finish setting under tension instead of compression, which is what keeps the shreds open. Do not cover it while it is warm either, since trapped steam condenses on the crust and softens it. The chocolate stays in distinct pieces only if it went in cold and in chunks, never as fine shavings.

Professional Mise en Place

This bread runs over two days and one overnight fermentation, so the fruit work is finished long before the dough begins.

Equipment and tools

Stand mixer with dough hook, bowl and hook chilled in the freezer
Instant read probe thermometer, the single most important tool here
Digital scale accurate to 1 g
Paper panettone mould, 6 in (15 cm), and two long metal skewers
Dehydrator or an oven that holds 160°F (70°C)

Prepared ahead

Dried pear slices, up to 2 weeks ahead, airtight at room temperature
Candied pear cubes, up to 1 week ahead, refrigerated in their syrup
Chocolate chopped into chunks and kept cold
First dough mixed and fermenting, 12 to 14 hours before the second

Service setup

Panettone hanging inverted, at least 8 hours before it is needed
Wedges cut to order with a long serrated knife, never in advance
Loosely whipped mascarpone in a cold bowl, alongside
Board and knife at room temperature, bread never refrigerated

Chef Tips

Buy the thermometer before anything else. A probe that reads in two seconds is the difference between knowing where the dough is and guessing. Read the centre with the machine stopped, and note the number after each stage so you learn your own mixer.

Choose Williams pears, firm and slightly underripe, for both preparations. A ripe pear turns to purée in the syrup and to paper in the dehydrator. Press the neck of the fruit with a thumb: it should barely give.

Do not scale this up on a domestic machine. Two panettoni at once means a bowl too full to mix properly, a longer mix and a dough past the temperature ceiling. Make one, learn the timings, and make the next another week.

If the dough passes 81°F (27°C) and turns slack and shiny, stop. It will not recover. Chill it hard, bake it flat in a tin as a rich sweet loaf, and start the panettone again with colder ingredients.

Common Mistakes

Mixing on medium or high speed to save time. Speed multiplies friction, and friction is heat. The dough hits the ceiling long before the gluten has developed, and nothing afterwards builds the structure back. Low speed and refrigerator pauses are the only route to a light crumb.

Proofing by the clock instead of by the dough. Five hours in a warm kitchen and eight in a cold one can both be correct. The measure is the crown, which must reach 3/4 in (2 cm) below the rim of the paper. Short gives a dense bread, late gives a collapsed dome.

Cooling the panettone upright. The crumb is still soft and steaming when it leaves the oven and the dome compresses itself within the first hour. Skewer it and hang it upside down for eight hours. This one step accounts for most of the distance between a home panettone and a good one.

Serving it straight from the refrigerator. Cold butter in the crumb reads as dryness, and a perfectly made bread will taste stale. Panettone belongs at room temperature, and a brief warming in a low oven revives a loaf kept somewhere cool.

Wine Pairing

Moscato di Scanzo DOCG: The Lombard answer, from a tiny appellation in the hills above Bergamo, and the most interesting bottle here. A sweet red made from dried grapes, with rose and dried fig over a light but real tannin. That tannin is the point: it meets 70 percent chocolate on its own terms, where a sweet white would simply be swallowed by it, and the dried fruit runs straight into the candied pear.

Recioto della Valpolicella DOCG: The other sweet red worth reaching for, and the more powerful of the two. Corvina dried on racks builds sour cherry and cocoa depth with enough acidity underneath to keep the sweetness light on its feet. It handles the bitterness of the dark chocolate without being flattened, and it stands up to the fat of the mascarpone crumb.

Vin Santo del Chianti Classico DOC: A Tuscan classic beside a Lombard bread, and the pairing works on oxidation. Long ageing in partly filled small barrels gives dried apricot, walnut and caramel notes that mirror the dried pear, with an acidic backbone that cuts the butter. Serve it at 55°F (13°C) in a small glass, and choose it when the chocolate is a background note.

Moscato d'Asti DOCG: The lightest option and the one to pour at the end of a long meal. Low alcohol, a soft sparkle and pure pear and white peach aromatics echo the fruit in the bread directly, while the bubble and the bright acidity scrub the mascarpone fat off the palate between mouthfuls. Serve it very cold, at 43°F (6°C).

Storage & Reheating

Once it is completely cool, seal the panettone in a food safe bag with a little air in it and keep it at room temperature. It holds well for 5 to 6 days and is arguably better on the second and third day, when the fat has distributed evenly through the crumb and the pear perfume has spread. Never refrigerate it: cold accelerates starch retrogradation and the bread goes stale faster in the refrigerator than on the counter.

For longer keeping, cut it into wedges, wrap each one in film and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw them still wrapped at room temperature for two hours, then warm them 6 to 8 minutes at 300°F (150°C) to soften the crumb and loosen the chocolate. Do not microwave a wedge, which steams the crumb and turns it gummy in seconds.

Nutrition

Per serving, based on 12 wedges from one 2 lb (900 g) panettone:

Calories: 385 kcal
Total Fat: 17 g
Saturated Fat: 10 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Unsaturated Fat: 6 g
Cholesterol: 110 mg
Sodium: 205 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 52 g
Fiber: 2 g
Total Sugars: 29 g
Added Sugars: 20 g
Protein: 7 g
Lactose: 1.1 g
Principal micronutrients: iron, selenium, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin B2, copper